Bad Sources for a Research Project

When conducting research for an academic paper or homework assignment, you’re dealing with facts. You need to collect them and to organize them in the right way to come up with your claim. As a researcher, you are responsible for understanding the difference between opinions and facts, as well as between facts and fiction. Our team of professionals writers-house.com prepared this list of sources that you should avoid in order to make your research credible and informative.

When searching for sources that you can use in your research, make sure that they are credible. Otherwise, you shouldn’t include them in your project.

Blogs

Virtually anyone can start their own blog, and you must understand that most bloggers don’t have any expertise in the field they write about. People express their opinions and views but you cannot check their credentials to understand whether or not they are professionals.

Quite often, bloggers get their information from unreliable sources. You may use a quote from some blog but never use blogs to support your claims or to provide facts.

Personal Websites

Personal websites are similar to blogs and they are also unreliable. Be careful when browsing personal websites because it’s hard to understand whether a certain page was created by an expert or enthusiast.

Providing information from a personal page is basically the same as asking a stranger on the street for help.

Wiki Sites

Quite often, Wiki sites are informative. However, they are not trustworthy enough to use them in your research. Anyone can edit articles on these sites so they often contain unreliable information.

Many students ask whether they should use Wikipedia as a source of information. Wikipedia contains many facts and sometimes, you may use it as a source. However, we recommend that you ask your instructor or teacher for specific instructions. The best way to use Wikipedia is to look for sources related to your topic.

Movies

Many professors point out the fact that students believe in what they see in movies. Never use movies as a research source. The only exception may be a documentary but you can use it only if the type of your assignment allows you to do so.

Historical Novels

Many students think that historical novels are trustworthy sources because they are based on real events. It’s a common misconception because you should understand the difference between works based on facts and factual works. Novels are fictional by nature so never use them as sources for your research.